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Listening to people on health care

KEY SUMMARY: People are very concerned about health care and don’t feel that Washington is going to be any help. Although they are aware of high drug prices they don’t blame pharma for the high cost of medical care.

The last week and a half was pent listening to people talk about health care in research for a new startup. There were 24 groups in all in 5 different cities and they comprised people from all demographic groups. Here are the top line findings:

2wo: People within the groups who had either recently been in a hospital or had to go to the doctor for a health issue complained about the time it took to learn what was wrong and the excess of tests they felt were unnecessary like MRI’s or CAT scans.

5ive: When asked about the high cost of cancer drugs the vast majority said “it would be worth it” but when the moderator asked them about a potential co-pay of close to $100,000 for certain drugs they were more than surprised. As one woman said “my co-pay could wipe out my whole retirement!”.

6ix: Most are happy with their insurance companies, but there was a rising concern about being prescribed certain drugs only to have their insurers say “no” or switch them to another brand.

7even: When it comes to the concern over “fake health news” most said that their online health searches required more time and that they often sought the advice of others to help them sort through information.

10en: While some pharma companies had contacted patients about treatment with their products the majority of people said that the pharma’s company only concern seemed to be “selling them the drug”. Someone talked about being contacted by a “patient coordinator” who she found out was not even an employee of the pharma company.